ENJOY THE SHOW

Starting this evening, a whole slew of films are hitting movie theaters including Disney's musical Into the Woods, Angelina Jolie's World War II drama Unbroken, the controversial comedy The Interview (check out the full list of theaters playing the film here) and Mark Wahlberg's The Gambler. There's also limited releases of the civil rights drama Selma, Clint Eastwood's contemporary war drama American Sniper, and Tim Burton's Big Eyes. But if you'd rather stay home and curl up on the couch with your loved ones, here's a small list of holiday favorites and a few other choice films that you should watch on Netflix Instant now.

It's that time of the year again when families get together, eat too much food, spend too much money and enjoy an extended weekend that is truly American. This year the usual craziness has been amplified for sci-fi fans as the teaser trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens hits limited theaters this weekend. Otherwise, you can catch a slew of great films in theaters now, including but not limited to blockbusters like The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part I, new comedies like Horrible Bosses 2, family flicks like The Penguins of Madagascar and some awards contenders like Birdman, Foxcatcher, The Theory of Everything and more. But if you want to stay home, here's some Netflix Instant picks you can watch now!

It's that time of the year in America again where we celebrate July 4th by grilling, drinking and shooting fire into the sky. But it's also a big weekend at the movies as audiences flock to theaters to see the latest releases. We're surprised Michael Bay's Transformers: Age of Extinction wasn't held over until this weekend, but there's still plenty of new releases to check out for better or worse like Tammy, Deliver Us from Evil, Earth to Echo and a wide release for Snowpiercer (check out our interview with director Bong Joon-ho right here). But if none of those appeal, we decided to round up a short list of some great indies that you can enjoy from the comfort of your home on Netflix Instant this Independence Day. Look!

After just being named as one of the feature documentary premieres at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival today, Greg Whiteley's film Mitt will also be hitting Netflix while the festival unfolds in Park City, Utah. As the title indicates, the documentary provides an intimate, rarely seen, behind-the-scenes look at the run of major presidential candidate Mitt Romney. King of Kong director Seth Gordon also executive produced the film which begins in Christmas of 2006 and runs all the way to his concession speech in 2012 after losing the election to President Barack Obama. Hopefully it's more of a journey into the difficulty and madness of running for President of the United States as opposed to just propaganda one way or the other.

This year people are going crazy with shopping on Thanksgiving after gorging on turkey. But it's also a great time to hit the cinema for a good flick. This week, new releases like Frozen, Homefront and Oldboy arrive, and you can still check out The Hunger Games: Catching Fireand Thor: The Dark World everywhere, not to mention awards contenders Dallas Buyers Club and Nebraska where you can find them, plus plenty of other films. But if you just want to stay at home and enjoy an excellent movie with the family, we've got another Thanksgiving feast of films available on Netflix Instant to enjoy quickly. Look!

It's that time of year again in the United States when the country gets together, takes days off work, cooks raw flesh, shoots explosives into the sky and drinks until the sun comes up. No, it's not just Thursday. It's Independence Day. But if you're not one heading out on the town and wish to partake in some indoor festivities, then we've decided to round up some independent films (get it?) that you can watch now, thanks to the fantastic service that is Netflix. Below you'll find a list of a number of great films that are available to stream right now on Netflix Instant. Most are from the past couple years, and some are just our favorites.

It's that time once again where we eat ourselves into a food coma resulting from turkey, various casseroles, seemingly endless pumpkin pies and the best cooking a home can offer. Thanksgiving isn't just a time for satisfying our appetite for delicious food though. It's also a time to feed your eye and mind with some great movies. This week new releases like Rise of the Guardians, Life of Pi and Red Dawn arrive, and you can still check out Skyfall everywhere, Silver Linings Playbook in limited release, plus plenty of other films. But if you just want to stay at home and enjoy an excellent movie with the family, then we've got yet another Thanksgiving feast of films now available Netflix Instant to enjoy quickly and easily. Look below!

While the rest of the world is busy dealing with July 4th as another humpday, here in the United States, it's Independence Day. Plenty of people will be quoting Bill Pullman's speech from the sci-fi blockbuster of the same name, eating ribs, hot dogs and hamburgers, blowing stuff up and getting drunk, just as the founding fathers intended. However, I think we've celebrated enough to rub our victory in the faces of those who oppressed us from across the pond. Today, I say we celebrate our British brethren for being worthy opponents, and letting us have a day off, by watching some of their recent great films on Netflix Instant.

Now is the time for families to get together and enjoy food, football, fun and hopefully films. How's that for a feast full of alliteration? Therefore, we thought now would be a good time to also bring back our Netflix Instant feature so that you and your family and friends might enjoy some good movies across all sorts of different genres. Most of the featured films you'll find below are from this year or last year and include everything from documentaries (both musical and Sundance selected) to foreign films, a British comedy, an animated take on Shakespeare for the whole family, plus even a list of some old favorites. Check them out!

Ah Netflix, who doesn't use it? Time for another infographic to kick off your day, this one via GigaOM, all about that fantastic video service. As many know, Netflix recently exploded into the digital realm, becoming the largest user of bandwidth on the internet (to distribute streaming movies), and growing subscribers substantially by launching accounts for those streaming online only. Who still gets the discs anyway? (I'm only kidding, or am I?) This infographic is based on real traffic data and is impressive when you think about just how huge Netflix has become and how it really is the primary movie-watching method for many people.

It's been awhile since our last update on the new titles in the Netflix Instant library, so this week we have some great stuff for you to check out. There's quite a few hit movies and low key praiseworthy flicks from last year that include a comedy reminiscent of John Hughes' past work, the most recent Academy Award winner for Best Animated Feature Film, a time traveling jacuzzi and more. There's also some great indie gems from years past, a couple of stellar documentaries to see, a film from a time before Steve Martin made terrible family comedies, and the whole lot of classic James Bond films. So what's in our queue this week?

It's that time of the month again! A whole slew of great new Netflix Instant titles have been dumped into the library for your viewing pleasure. We've got some great movies from last year and decades past. One of them appeared on our list of movies you may have missed from 2010 while another showed up on my list of the worst five films of last year (if you're interested, it's in honorable mentions). There's a few comedy faves, a recent remake of a certain 80's flick, a couple films which are getting or have already received the remake treatment, plus plenty more for you to sink your teeth into this time. So what's in our queue this week?